Joe Hall

Metrics are awesome! Seriously I know I sound like a nerd, but the truth is, metrics make our jobs as SEOs easier because they allow us to quickly identify complex aspects of large data sets. If used correctly they can show patterns and trends that need to be identified. However understanding which metrics are the most important is a hard task.

I often hear people in the SEO industry talk about which metrics they use. Sometimes I will hear that some swear by a given data set. Others will completely ignore some data, and some develop their own metrics. Personally I like to collect as many metrics as possible and judge the quality of the site/page based on their relative context to other sites/pages in the same niche.

We already know that Google is keen on identifying patterns in their data that are likely the result of a brand presence. This is largely because it has become universally understood that brands are trust worthy and deserving of attention. Whether or not you agree with that, the fact remains that brands perform better in search results.

Building back links can be the most tedious process of any SEO effort. Therefore, looking for low hanging fruit that can make the process easier, can be a very effect use of one time. The best way to identify low hanging fruit is to take an inventory of the assets already at your disposal, and look for new opportunities.

Building a web site is a lot like making a cake. There are lots of different types, and millions of different recipes. But my favorite type of cake (and web site) is one made with simple but, high quality, ingredients. When I was in grade school I remember writing an essay and my teacher telling me after, that I needed to KISS my work more.

Let’s pretend for a moment that NBC’s Today Show wants to do a story on politics in the Middle East. For some odd reason the producers can choose to have either me, or General Colin Powell on as a guest. Can you guess who they are likely to pick? Despite the fact that I have a degree in political science with a concentration in international politics, they will always pick Colin Powell over me.

Last week Panda 4.0 rolled out and along with it a lot of new analysis as to what can trigger it. I started to write up my own analysis today, but decided to table that until next week when I can collect more data. However, in the meantime I think we should still talk about Panda. But instead of hashing out how to escape this filter, I would rather talk about ways to build a si ...

When you want to learn something new how do you go about doing that? Personally I approach new topics by writing about them, and asking questions to folks that know a lot more than I do. Which is why when I decided to learn more about mobile marketing, I immediately decided I needed to interview, Cindy Krum. Cindy Krum, is the CEO and founder of MobileMoxie.

Last week I talked about optimizing the comment section of a blog post. After I published that article I thought, Wow, I just ignored the rest of the page! While the comments are important, there should also be a whole body of content above the comments that is also important as well. Therefore, I figured I would put together some tips this week for optimizing a blog post template for SEO.

Sometimes the comment section of a blog can be way more interesting than the entire article itself. In fact it seems as if sometimes the best information is found with in a post’s blog comments. Which is why I hate seeing blogs that haven’t optimized their blog comment sections for SEO. I mean lets think about it: This is free content on your site that came from users that ar ...